Gustave Courbet's Reclining Nude
Beginning of paper
In the Philadelphia Museum of Art are five paintings by Gustave Courbet;
of all of these I found Reclining Nude (1868, Oil on canvas, The Louis &
Stern Collection, 63-81-20) the most interesting. It depicts a nude woman
lying on the beach beneath a billowing canopy. A dark, but tranquil sea is
i ....
Middle of paper
.... heavy. Her arms are
crossed languidly over her head. Because her arms are crossed over her
head, her face is almost completely in the shadows; this shadowing covers
the detail of her face in such a way that she could be almost anyone. She
gazes wistfully at the ground to her left.
The woman is rendered very softly and is in a very sensuous pose. This
picture would have been found scandalous for its sexual overtones as was
Courbet's La Demoiselles au bord de la Seine. A scarlet cloth li ....
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Page count: 6 (approximately 250 words per page)
